Man, I've been scanning some digital media recorders. They are more expensive than MP3 players, but they have way more disk space and some offer high quality audio recording... I like NewEgg's selection.

Check out Archos at $350 and $510 (page 5&6) for some interesting gizmos.
CLICK HERE
And Archos start at about $250 with same higher quality audio recording specs. I suggest looking at the first feature heading for Audio Recording Format Very slick stuff.